Neonatality
by joshuavdm.me
Summary: The Doctor and Bill go for a trip to a Renaissance world, but they find it blackened and barren and more terrifying than they ever could have imagined
1. Chapter 1

'…but how about a Renaissance PLANET?' The Doctor exclaimed with substantially more pride than was normal for such a statement.  
'Huh?' said Bill, barely registering him over BBC News on her phone.  
'You said you'd never been to a Renaissance Festival?' He looked over, puzzled.  
There was a pause as Bill stared down at him, 'That was 9 months ago! That was before the space Victorians, before Monks took over the world. Bloody hell! That was before the Planet of the Killer Emojis!'  
'Well, I've been thinking about it…' He defended.  
'And?'  
'We're here! Etruscia! Human colony built to honour the loss of Florence in 4468. The most luxurious, eccentric and exciting place in this Galaxy.' He boasted.  
'Which is?' Bill asked.  
'What?'  
'What Galaxy are we in?'  
'Well, it's not as if you'll have heard of it, Dwingeloo 1 if you must know, although it was discovered only 3 years after your birth so frankly, while typical, it's shocking that you haven't. It orbits the galaxy Maffei 1, which holds some of the oldest most metal rich stars in the Cassiopeia constellation, it. And _we're_ in orbit around Inmotia 117, 93 exametres from your home and flying away from it at 925,200 km/h.'  
'That's almost 10 million light years!' Bill replied.  
'Calculator on your phone is there?' The Doctor condescended.  
'No but there's a girl who's seen enough Star Trek to know the conversions on it, I'm not just a pretty face.'  
'A what?' He smiled.  
Bill laughed at him derisively, finally slipping her phone back into the breast pocket of her overalls. With one hand still on the console the Doctor gestured to the TARDIS door, refulgent white light poured through the windows illuminating the walkway. Bill tentatively stepped towards the door, looking back at his Cheshire Cat smile for reassurance as her fingers brushed lightly on the lock and she flicked the silver lever and pulled open the door, pallid air spilled inside.

'Renaissance?' Bill sneered, 'It's more like apocalypse'  
The Doctor poked his head out and made a frown of concern, 'Well this is very not right.' He returned to the console and began flicking buttons and making faces at the various monitors.  
Bill, bathed in the immaculate light, took another step. The toe of her trainers nestled into stygian black sand, finer than cornflour. The view was preposterous.

For as far as she could see, hundreds of miles from the obsidian plateau she now stood on, were pillars of ebony, mountains of onyx and seas of atrementum vaster and darker than anything she ever imagined. As if some great turbulent river had, in a single instant, been turned to a stone of the deepest, purest black. The argent blaze from the sun did nothing to alleviate the dark, it was like a torch was being shone in her eyes, somehow blinding the lower half of her vision. She had never seen such brilliant, garish light, it felt like the backs of her eyes were being seared. She looked back at the TARDIS, the deep royal blue was being bleached by the sunlight, it appeared sickly, the wooden panels didn't comfort Bill the way they usually did. The Doctor was still inside, he gave her a quick confused look before his face froze in terror and she cried out in pain.

She tried to look down at her hands as her fingertips exploded in frozen agony, but she couldn't, it felt like they were being punctured by razors as cold as ice. Her legs were fixed, shoulder-width apart feet splayed outwards, her arms were outstretched in front of her angled down at 45 degrees with palms upturned. Her head was tilted backwards as if yanked by a rope, her mouth was open and painful in its rigidity. Bill's every inch was restricted as if pulled in by an invisible, immeasurable force so restrictive she could not even tremble in fear, her initial cry continued to echo around the oppressive landscape, except it had been reduced to a pale and feeble whimper. The feeling of frost penetrated deeper into her chest like an infection spreading further and further, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't weep, she could barely even see the Doctor through her slowly welling tears.

The Doctor ran back out of the TARDIS frantically, scuffing the doorway as he floundered. He grabbed Bill's forearm with a strong but wrinkled fist but before his long fingers were even fully clenched around her, a pulse of energy was expelled from the dark shimmer encasing her. He was thrown against the corner of the TARDIS with such force he felt his skin split against the back of his skull, his brain throbbed as his mind raced in panic. What was happening to Bill? Think Doctor. Think! A planet that should be vibrant and full of life is dark and ravaged by sunlight, Bill was coated in a sheen like a shadow all around. As if they'd landed in some alternate plane…and she was being drawn from it. She could not move, and she could not be moved, molecular calculation or subatomic measurements? The shimmer looked damp, he could see droplets condensing as he watched. Hygroscopic energy field! Means there's some geological anchoring. A fine white precipitate started to evaporate from the shell and he felt a severe coldness coming off her, an endothermic reaction? Suggests primitive temporal technology. Think! Think! A human colony, cusp of the 52nd century, could they have something like this? A kind of chronological capturing device, taking her where? For what purpose? Ok. Don't know why, just work out how, how to help her. She can't be rescued from what is happening, but she can be prepared, prepared for whoever is doing it.

The frost bit harder as she watched the Doctor, the man who had always protected her be flung back like a ragdoll. After a few seconds, he jumped to his feet as lithe as ever, his face a stew of confusion and dread.  
'Bill!' He shouted 'You're being taken, you are being shifted out of time, a different phase of reality, likely the one all the people and cities of this planet are in. A kind of 4D camouflage, like those grief leeches! Remember?' His voice softened to a low mumble 'Applying a cephalopodic cloaking technique to an entire planet, someone's been listening to my greatest hits…' He trailed off 'I don't know who is doing this and I don't know what for, but I know that _you_ are brilliant. I am so, so sorry, this is going to be painful and terrifying, the mere process is agony and you are going to be thrust into an alien world. You will need to acclimate and survive until I can figure out how to get you back.' He was darting around the TARDIS desperately rummaging through trunks and cases, chucking various strange objects over his shoulder and speaking with extreme rapidity. 'A somewhat archaic scanner, it's taking down your atomic information in its totality, we have…' He counted on his fingers '…4 minutes. Ok, work with that. Background information. Planet: Etruscia. Relative Earth Date: Monday, January 30th 5099. Based on the latitude and longitude, somewhere near the city of Bononia, capital of Romaemila, the largest nation on Etruscia, currently ruled over by Vicci Amidae III leader of the Maevelchi party, an anthro-preservation movement of sorts, friendly enough.' He stuck his hand deep into another pile of junk and pulled another peculiar item out. 'This is the peak of the Time Agency's power, the government should still respect the central IGDL authority, so that's what you'll pretend to be a part of!' He rushed to Bill nestling the oddest collection of scrap she'd ever seen.

'First! Vortex Manipulator, time travel technology, evidence enough of your rank in the agency, basic co-ordinates are set, locked to this gravitational body and now attune to the timestream you're entering. If under threat, you can alter the relative locality link and bam! Time vortex to the rescue! Don't burnout the battery and don't cross your own timeline unless you really, really feel like ending the universe.' An attempt at that reassuring smile flashed across his face as he frantically soniced what looked like an overdesigned wristwatch. The Doctor delicately reached towards her and placed the device around her forearm, careful not to nudge any part of her even slightly, it clicked into place and he shivered. 'Second, the Aoratos Watch, simple enough, makes the wearer completely invisible by reversing light waves. Just look stylish and then press the button to stop looking like anything at all' He tucked a silvery trinket into her pocket and slipped out her phone as he did so. Sonicing it before sliding it back in with a leather wallet. 'You're familiar with psychic paper and your phone, it should link to the TARDIS console through any dimensional disturbance' Now the Doctor was holding just two items, his own Screwdriver and something that resemble a long magic wand with a silver bauble on the end. He looked between them with extreme apprehension before placing the flashing green and blue sonic in yet another of her pockets with a weak smile. 'I never like to part but, you need it more than me. I can cope with just my Sonic Cane. Only been a few hundred years!' He slowly moved his hands back away from her and Bill thought she saw his nose twitch as if anxious. 'It's all down to you now,' He smiled feebly again 'Figure out what's going on, keep yourself safe and, if you can, do some good. I've seen you save children, topple dictators and diplomat with aliens made of gas! You will be ok. No! More than that. You will be amazing!'

Bill's fingertips felt like they were being sliced off, then her fingers and toes. Hands and feet severed as if by an enormous boreal blade. Her throat was aching to scream as inch by inch her arms and legs were carved, she couldn't look down but Bill was certain she could see her own limbs disappearing in her periphery. The Doctor averted his eyes from her in what looked like revulsion. The icy shredding reached her shoulders and her hips, she could feel her bones crack as the knife pushed through them with greater and greater force. She was sure, the discomfort in her extremities had become fainter, a phantom pain, while the wound burned with cold ever stronger as it moved further up her body. Her breath froze in her lungs as their lower half was cut and removed, the red built behind her eyes, she couldn't breathe or even gasp for air. A frozen fog built up in her head, encrusting her mind in razor-sharp hoarfrost, the glowing white view faded to ever darker shades of grey as her consciousness faded away.

The Doctor knew what was going to happen, but the sight was still more than he could bear. Whatever amalgam of tech had been bastardised into this device was unable to temporally shift more than small masses at a time, so it dices its subjects into…bite-size pieces. The barbarism of the craftsmanship disgusted him. He turned back for a final look, Bill was a scalp, only her hair and the last scraps of brain and skull still shimmered in the same cold, black. In another crackle of cool electric light, she was lost.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor was alone on the ashen planet, he turned back into his TARDIS and began running numerous depth scans before sitting on a cold metal chair, crestfallen.  
'Don't say a word!' He shouted furiously into the seemingly empty corridors of his ship as he heaved back up.  
He poured a handful of the black dust into a dish that inserted itself into the console and walked back outside. The sun was so intense even the Doctor's eyes struggled to adjust as he winced in the discomfort and his bewilderment, he hated not understanding.  
He knew this system and this planet, they were in orbit 105 gigametres around Inmotia 117 a yellow giant with a mass of about 1.4 exatonnes, very like Earth's orbit of the sun on a 25% smaller scale. Etruscia too, a diameter of 11.2 megametres and gravitational acceleration of 7.03 ms-2 was just like a three quarters scale model of the Doctor's second favourite planet. Its orbit was artificially altered to exactly that of Earth's to allow for a synchronised calendar. Only the axial tilt was significantly different, at 8.2 degrees to Earth's 23.5; that and the complete lack of natural satellites or planetary neighbours. The system was also unique in this supercluster, all but completely stationary against the Cosmic Microwave Background Rest Frame, like a tumour on a skeleton. The atmosphere composition was correct, 3.1% Argon, 38.4% Oxygen, 57.8% Nitrogen, 0.6% water vapour and only slightly too much Carbon Dioxide, but the pressure was all wrong from what it should be, only about 21 Kilopascals; a fifth of Earth's where it should have been even greater, dangerously low despite the high oxygen content, last time he had altitude sickness was in 1289 and he didn't feel like repeating it. The Doctor didn't understand it, but maybe the low air density was somehow linked to the absurd brightness, at a guess he would say it was over 7 Gigacandela/m2 about 5 times the strength of the sun on Earth or most planets in habitable zones. Even the weather was strange, at 4.9°C it must have been almost 100% humidity and not even a breath of wind, it was about 1600 local equivalent time, days here however lasted 70 hours. They were only 15 degrees south of the equator and less than a tenth of a sun cycle before the summer solstice, it should have been far warmer. It was almost as if the lower atmosphere had been taken out of phase with the rest of the planet too, leaving only the thermosphere and exosphere to sink down, but that didn't match with the geological anchoring and there was no tang of ozone, but there had been... This technology was not human. While the damaged atmosphere could explain the bright and the cold, solar radiation could not have blackened the land so totally in any less than several millennia. It did not make sense to him. The strange technology that had clearly been used, made even less.  
The Doctor was beginning to feel sick, the dazzling light and memory of Bill being carved up like a cadaver turned his stomach. Staring into the sun he discerned a slight change in the light coming off it, as if a small object in very low orbit had passed over. He looked at the bluish sky where it should now have been, but the blinding sun made it impossible for his eyes to focus. He slowly backed towards the TARDIS, his estimates on the odds of a non-hostile craft in the area did the opposite of relieve his concern.  
'Stay inside!' The Doctor bellowed into the slightly ajar doorway, a soft patter of leather-coated plastic on metal could be heard from the balconies over the console.  
Now standing within arm's reach of his own ship he located the tiny craft now almost halfway from the sun to the horizon in the North-East. So far, the Doctor had spared little thought to the landscape around him, he was stood on a plateau, raised about 20 metres above a large lake of thick black fluid in front of him to the East. Off to the horizon in every other direction were dark mountains and ridges. The chaotic charcoal forms had seemed to be entirely coated in the extremely fine black soot. However, based on the way his feet sank into the ground and the light did not brighten even the mountain tops, the Doctor realised that what he thought were rolling hills and soaring peaks were just piles. Piles and piles of the same jet-black dust.  
Almost as soon as this realisation struck him, a soft light, like the twinkle of a star, drew his attention back to the area of the sky in which he had earlier seen the ship. The Doctor's eyes fluttered to focus on the point the slightly pink light originated. His life could depend on the next few seconds of calculations.  
The quiet electronic sound hit him 2.54 seconds later, meaning the ship was 850 metres away. He could distinguish a shape now, a rounded tetrahedron, dark and uniform in colour, about 120 cm top to bottom, not large enough for a human inhabitant, it had to be alien, or a drone. It span around as if to face him, then an additional 0.87 seconds after the first sound he saw a puff of ash as if the projectile had made contact, then, 7.82 seconds later he heard the crash, meaning it was 2615 metres away. The angle between the line from the site to him and the line from him to the ship was about 119.5 degrees. Cosine rule meant that the projectile had travelled 3122 metres to the impact site in just 3.41 seconds, this gave it a terrifying speed of 916 ms-1. If he saw the light again, he would likely have less than 0.93 seconds to react before he was hit.  
The Doctor's hand rested on the edge of the slightly open door, unblinkingly staring down the craft, his eyelid twitching. It felt almost like a duel.  
The same subtle pink flash, the Doctor flung himself inside, quickly slamming the door behind him before the ground exploded and the TARDIS rumbled. He heard the familiar sound of the weapon firing only 1.36 seconds after the projectile hit, the ship had moved towards him.

The Doctor shot his arm through the TARDIS doors and made a blind grab for the projectile. His fingers wrapped around the unnaturally cold, strangely soft object, it was slightly too large to hold in a single hand. He pulled it back in and recoiled in shock and horror.  
It was a humeral head, large clumps of icy fat and muscle still stuck to it. The bone had been roughly cut through at the bottom and sliced directly through the joint at the top.  
A human shoulder, frozen solid, and on it, clung skin, the dark caramel colour of his best friend in the universe.

'I didn't watch!' She cooed, gripping the bannister as she softly waltzed down the stairs. 'I can imagine her little face though "Oh no! I triggered an automatic Chronovacuator because the Doctor didn't do a basic scan for environmental tech"'  
The console dinged as she walked past it, the dust analysis was complete. 'Ooooooh; well!' Her eyes widened in mock horror making a grotesque display with her gaudy makeup. 'It's not ash! It's rot! Desiccated fungus, some mould overgrew every surface, used every ounce of organic matter on this planet to flourish and spread until it became everything, just in a matter of days.' Her painted nails danced through the air as she mimed a rainbow 'Before "Poof!" Total colony collapse! With no external nutrients, everything died at once, an ecosystem completely consumed by a single organism. It's rather enviable….' She sidled over to her purple umbrella and twirled it once in her hand before brushing down her exquisite plum skirt-suit and turning to the Doctor. 'Enough to make a girl…blush.' Missy smiled with her most playful malice.


	3. Chapter 3

Bill's consciousness returned like a car crash. Screeching, turning, warping spasms hurled her mind from the silence into the light. She had mere seconds to observe her surroundings, pale grey padded walls, a cubic room of about 3 metres, before whatever was supporting her evaporated. She hit the soft ground in a painful clump.  
A door she hadn't noticed slid open to reveal a second larger room. Bill inelegantly got to her feet, breathed deeply and attempted to collect herself.  
The torment had passed, but she still quivered as if anticipating the unimaginable agony to return at any moment, she had never experienced anything like it. The sheer horror of the memory hit her again and in an instant, she felt herself back there on the black planet, cold and cut, like strung meat. Bill fell back to her knees and wept, it was more than she could bear.  
Minutes went by and Bill's breathing became less haggard and hoarse, she patted down her pockets and felt the items the Doctor had given her. They helped her remember what he had said, they made her feel less hopeless and alone.  
She thought to herself "If _he_ can do it, how hard could it be?" Bill dried her eyes, and stood back up, ready to face whatever trials lay ahead.

From the second room, a brick rolled it.

It was 2 feet tall, loosely resembling a purple microwave turned on its side, Bill almost laughed when the translucent glass door popped open with a quiet beep, swinging forward, revealing a smartphone-sized piece of tech and a crumpled note next to it.  
Bill stood up, picked up the device and looked it over before placing it back down on top of the brick. Then she nervously picked up the all-too-familiar yellow post-it.

 _To Bill  
You've just stood up and walked over and picked up this letter after you picked up the Glace except you don't know that it's a Glace yet cos you only just got here so you just think it's a weird smartphone-sized piece of tech with a note next to it.  
And now at this point you're worried that I'm watching you and you're looking around for a camera but now you've just realised that this note was already written before you were looking around for a camera so it wouldn't make any sense that I was watching you cos if I was how would I have written this note so now you've figured out I must have time-travelled and then by the enormous amount of rambling you've just clicked that it's you, as in I am you, I'm the you from later who's already been through this bit and read this note so is now writing it down after travelling back in time before right now and writing this note. At this point you're scared about remembering this all but now you've realised you can just keep it so it's ok really and now you're hoping that I…you get to the point.  
You're in the future so first things first you need to get some new clothes, firstly, cos why not? May as well get some future fashion in your repertoire, but, you're also REALLY going to want some new clothes very soon (apparently). Walk out the front door, turn left and walk about 720 metres straight down the – uh – road, we'll get to that bit later. Anyway, go down until – wait. Shit! No, don't, first thing you have to do when you walk outside, that glassy thing is called a Glace, it's like a credit card. Currently you have an account set up, but you need to get yourself a second device so when you go back in time you can give it to yourself, so you have one now. Go to the bank across the road and 65 metres to the left of you, sonic the Glace on setting 6 while thinking about faulty credit cards, give it to the bricks and tell them your Glace isn't working. They'll find it's broken but they'll be unable to fix it and they'll offer you a replacement, take it, and make sure you keep your broken original. Make up some fib about sentimental value, the robots are programmed to be sympathetic, walk out with both, sonic the broken one, fixing it and now you can slide the new one in your pocket and forget about it for now. Go the stationery store, I know, right? They still have them in the future, it's crazy, you'd think it would all be digital or something. Anyway, typical me to start rambling as soon as I get to the point, well sort of, I'm meant to be telling you how to get clothes. OK, you can see it, it's right there, buy a pack of post-it notes that look exactly like this one, and then get just any the first black pen you see (it will always be the same), Ok, leave the store, throw all but one post-it notes and the pen in the bin, I'm not really sure why but I told me to, so I recommend it. Go back to the second room where the purple microwave popped out of. Then copy down this note EXACTLY, and um… well, travel 50 minutes back in time. You'll be in the same room, the door to the padded area will be closed_ _, DO NOT LOOK THROUGH THE WINDOW_ _. Pop open the microwave-bot, place the Glace, the new one you got, in there, where you saw it at the beginning, and then the newly copied note next to it. I know what you're thinking, why do I have to copy out the note? Can't I just use the same one? Well, although now you're being a bit thick, at one point you realised that that would mean it was being consistently sent back in time 50 minutes forever, therefore it would instantaneously become infinitely old. Ok, um well that's it, all the note I've got to copy out. So, good luck, just walk out the door now, go get those clothes, I guess, I don't know what's going to happen cos I haven't seen it yet, but there was one last bit.  
Whatever you see out there, don't scream, don't run, just wait._

Bill walked into the second room and gasped at the sight, the floor was covered in foul smelling black liquid. Bill gagged audibly and felt vomit rise in her mouth, she ran across it and slammed open the door.  
Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the sunli…

The street was bright, lit yellow, but the sky, the sky was a dark red-grey, no sun, no moon, no stars, not even a gradient. The street was narrow, just 4 metres from the door she walked out of, there were brilliant wooden structures. Climbing higher and higher into the sky as she looked up, peppered with hanging lanterns like luminous pearls and sweeping alabaster windows. Bill inhaled deeply and identified the bank across from her.

She soniced her…Glace, went inside, got a replacement, kept the original, went to the stationery shop, bought some post-it notes, bought the stupid pen. There wasn't a single person, just more bricks with scanners and shelves full of crap. She walked back to the second room, and hesitated next to what most looked like a bin in the vicinity, why did she have to throw them away? They might become useful later; binning them doesn't make sense. Bill tossed all but one and furrowed her brow, before walking into the room. The floor still soaked in the dark, vulgar fluid.  
She was face to…face with the 'Microwavebot' as she – she – yea, had called it. It stared at her totally unhumanoid, why did she feel so judged?  
Bill copied down the note hastily, her pulse was racing inexplicably. Bill put her hand over her heart as she penned it, she was confused about why her tangent about clothes had ended up. Her rate slowed as she finished off, making sure to match the capitalisations exactly.  
Bill pulled out the newer Glace and held it in her right hand along with the note.  
She raised her left wrist to look at the vortex manipulator for the first time, she switched the display to minutes, selected -50 and defaulted the positioning to her current location. She paused cautiously giving one last curious look to the micromauve and pressed the square button.

The world spiralled, around and around, vortexing into a tight, dense point that fired into her head. She shouted as the now clean grey floor slammed into her knee, Bill's stomach lurched and she tasted vomit at the back of her throat again.  
She stood back up achefully, and pressed the biggest button the Microwavobrick had, it popped open nicely and Bill placed the Glace and note inside and closed it with a click.  
Bill's thoughts turned to her own forewarning as her eyes turned to the window into the smaller room.  
She crept over, what would she see? Herself, surely, in some kind of stasis, yet to wake up. That was probably why she wasn't meant to look, seeing her past self would risk crossing the timelines. But really, it was ok so long as she didn't touch herself, that's what the Doctor said, she was just overreacting.  
She walked over to the door, seeing herself during this process could provide useful information, she couldn't miss the opportunity. Yes, that's the excuse she'd tell herself. She got to the window and stood on her tiptoes to peer in.

It was there, feet from the floor, it was her, it was a part of her. Legs attached to an exposed pelvis, organs pulsed and shifted as her stomach grew out from her own crotch.  
Her eyes ravenously devoured the rancid view even as she cried and wrenched them away. Bill turned from the door and felt bile burn her throat, she threw up violently, coating the floor with viscous black vomit.  
She ran to the Microwave, falling in her sick as she did, and grabbed the note, wincing as it crumpled in her hand. She emphatically underlined her warning to not look, maybe the next her would just listen for once. Bill place the note back inside and closed the little door. She slopped up from the floor and grabbed the handle to the outside world, still shaking slightly as she did so.  
She choked as she stared into her own eyes, she could hear the blood start to throb inside her head, her throat still burning from the acid taste. Across the street, crouched behind a bush, was her; the other her was staring back in terror before turning to the right and starting to scramble backwards. A cacophony of pounding footsteps echoed as another her charged at incredible speed towards the first, who then fiddled with something on their wrist and vanished. The second her dived towards the empty space and collided hard with cobbles underneath. They let out a scream like screeching metal before crawling panickily towards an alleyway and vanishing in black light and a white haze. She only wished that they both didn't still have sick on their clothes.


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor could not bring himself to look at Missy, he moved around the console and placed the descapulated shoulder down on another scanner pad that immediately began bathing it in harsh green light.  
None of this made any sense, the time travel technology, the atmosphere, the fungus, the drone, the shoulder! There had to be a connection, an explanation, a link. There had to be an answer.

Missy moved towards him as he stood dejected in the doorway with one arm up on the frame. She stroked the shoulder of his purple velvet blazer and felt his muscle tense underneath in fury and relished in the discomfort.  
'Don't!' He turned piercingly, 'Don't say a word!' His rage boiled over, the Scottish consonants bit her, and she instantly regretted her facetious one-sided repartee. She knew how upset he got over his pets, she resented it, she wanted them to hurt him. They left every time; and every time, his hearts were broken, and he came closer to her. She wanted his mistakes to make him suffer and she loved when someone else caused him anguish for once. She wanted him to be in pain, so she could relieve it, but now he was there, she felt helpless and unwanted all over again.

The Doctor breathed deeply as he once again tried to understand the chaos that had engulfed them. He heard Missy behind him and lost his temper all over again. 70 years of talking and trying was undone every time he put the smallest amount of faith in her. He could not deal with it right now, he was going to find Bill, rescue the planet and put Missy back in the vault where she couldn't hurt anyone else…anyone.

Missy moved back to the console and noted black spots appearing under the skin of the shoulder as the severe emerald light turned it semi-translucent. It reminded her of the fungus outside, something about the blackness, it was pensive.  
She could feel the Doctor's outrage, there was no joking now, no room for mockery, or for burrowing into his goodwill. Missy picked up his sonic cane and walked towards him, head bowed. She placed it gently into the palm of his hand and longingly stroked his thin, rough fingers as she closed his fist around the staff. Her throat quivered as the last erratic breaths escaped, she retreated nervously, knowing that the longer she took to step back, the more it would hurt when he left her this time.

The Doctor strutted inevitably out of the door and closed it with synthetic softness, he could feel the individual folds of his thumbprint brush the steel of the deceptively simple lock as he raised the key to its fitting. He turned it solemnly, not sure if he was locking Missy in or himself out. HADS was off, it was hardlocked to Etruscia's centre of gravity, yet somehow, he never believed it was going to be here when he came back.  
He hated being right, as soon as he heard the last pin click in place, a sound he knew accompanied the sealing of the real-time envelope, the entire ship was shrouded in the same crackling electric black light that had stolen Bill. It completely obscured the vivid blue he normally found so reassuring, it hid from him his home.  
He hovered his hand millimetres from the field and felt the cold, there was a slight acetic sting as it drew moisture from his skin. He still didn't understand what technology it was, he needed more information, why had the ozone tang come back now? Disregarding the grip of self-preservation for a split second, the Doctor leant into his ship and licked the dark energy shell.  
Searing bitterness burnt into the soft muscle of his tongue, the absinthian pain was unique, sodium hydroxide. The shroud was laced with ionised sodium, it reacted with the moisture in his mouth to form the strong alkali. Reacting with the air had formed sodium oxide, the white powder he had seen, and the current was what synthesised the ozone he had smelt. The Doctor braced through the shivers of pain, he knew he would be shaking even if he wasn't in agony. There was now only one possibility: cryonic seizure, hydrophilic temporal transfer, aerosolised and charged sodium metal. This was not technology from this universe.

Missy squealed as the Cloister Bell chimed, the metal floor rocked under her, nearly throwing her high-heeled feet off balance. The TARDIS had been captured by the chronovacuator, she felt its cool beat thrum in her bowels as excited glee bubbled in her stomach. She had to stifle a laugh when she saw the shoulder on its dais, a white furry moss was slowly spreading from the black pockmarks, like a fur carpet unrolling over skin. She knew the infection, she knew what was happening to the TARDIS, this was going to be so exciting.

The Doctor sat in the ash, his back leaned against a sable boulder and eyes squinted against the silvery sun as he struggled to formulate a plan in the shadow of his encased TARDIS. Bill was lost to him, the TARDIS was immured, and the planet around him was dead. He had one lead and he supposed it was the one he must follow; before the craft had shot at him, it targeted an object about 2½ kilometres to his North. He didn't know what he might find, but if he didn't find something, he was without hope.  
The terrain seemed to suck on his glossy black boots, it was dry to the touch but somehow bound together more like wet sand than powder. Each time he had to remove his foot from the ground he could feel his muscles tighten and tense against the papery skin of his calves under his heavy black trousers, now itching with sweat. The Doctor stumbled up another peak and saw a sparkling glint of steel in the inky valley below him, he dropped to his stomach and strained his eyes toward the lustrous figure.

The woman tensed her metallic fingers into a chromium fist as she saw the man clumsily fall on his front. She'd been pacing around camp entrance since the HeDrone had spotted Jaim trying to gather Lychen samples for her research, she _always_ had to be the one to take unnecessary risks. She pushed her right foot through the Cank and braced it against the smooth surface of a rock, she took a deep breath of yellowed air into her acrylic lungs and extended her hydraulic knee, storming the few hundred metres up the hill to the stranger in just a few seconds, like a train steaming down a hill. Her flesh arm connected with his stomach and tore him from his feet, argenteous hair fanned out behind him as soft skull hit dust. His body skin was dark, rough and loose, even more unbecoming was the face. He looked like a man, but his face was white and wrinkled, like fabric bleached and crumbling. She slung him gently over her engraved shoulder and silently ran to camp.

The Doctor fought the dark unconsciousness that accosted him, his two hearts pulsed blood powerfully to his haemorrhaging brain as his brainstems stimulated the release of the sentient platelets that distinguished his TL-Positive blood type. His brilliant blue irises darkened with exertion, his eyelids were tugged apart by fright when his last memory resurfaced in his panicking mind.  
A warmly lit cavern lay above him, candleflames reflected in a cold, glossy slab of metal that he now saw was built into the back of a young, dark-skinned figure sitting next to him. The Doctor lay completely still as he scanned over his new neighbour. Their entire left shoulder and back were made from intricately designed and meticulously polished steel. They had skin the colour of soot, River would call it 'Sangoire, blood spilt at midnight,' it looked course and solid, in its strange matte grey-brown texture. Up along the spine, copper coloured spikes poked through, cables fed out of the crook of the neck into grey rings that sat in place of ears. Their skull was completely smooth, scales of silvery metal were overlaid on the crown, they turned slowly towards the Doctor revealing a face marred in metal and mutilation.

She heard the stranger stir behind her, Foormun and Jaim were resetting and she had long since forgone her vocal chords for another Accretion. Raising the gadget she'd been fiddling with over the odd face, his pink mouth suddenly shot open as if to say something, but she could not hear. She set the InfoStamp to function entoptically, and plunged it towards his strange pale eyes.

The dark skin cracked on the perimeter of their face, he saw now it was a woman, or at least had been. Her jaw was exposed beige bone, bolted into a steel frame and filled with black teeth. She had no eyes to speak of, a dark hole on the left ringed with broken and reddened bone, on the other side a black glass bead the size of a conker rotated awkwardly in its socket. Skinless, rotting cartilage lay in place of a nose, a dark grey tube was inserted deep into one nostril and the Doctor could hear air being sucked sharply through it. She raised a large metal hand, holding in it a familiar metal trinket. She motioned it towards his face, milliseconds before its prongs penetrated the soft tissue of his eye; he recognised the design, and logo etched on the side. It was an InfoStamp, from Cybus industries.


	5. Chapter 5

_InfoStamp Data Log of Rachai Xy  
Etruscia  
History of Cybion  
The High Office of Kmillea NahChaingMai  
4472-_

 _Weekdae – Mae 11 4472 – Day of Light  
Etruscia is founded by Thae BoRuter in the name of the Maevelchi Party. Colony ship __lands 440 million settlers from Bosac_ _δ._

 _Fursdae – Juhn 20 4611 – Day of Balance  
Yuan secedes from Global Etruscian Union._

 _Sundae – Feb 3 4678 – Day of Light  
Yuan declares war on GEU due to territorial and uranium mining disputes._

 _Choosedae – Des 8 4691 – Day of Light  
Maevelchi Party launches 147 nuclear strikes on Yuan. Communications go dark._

 _Todae – Arp 6 4695 – Day of Balance  
Anti-Nuclear Isma-il Party found Neo-Islamic state of Al-Magrib._

 _Todae – Zsep 6 4702 – Day of Balance  
Garibalt Party elected in GEU amid Anti-Nuclear sentiment._

 _Todae – Djan 1 4766 Day of Light  
GEU expedition launched to explore Yuan ruins. Contact never re-established._

 _Mundae – Ock 27 4780 – Day of Dark  
Maevelchi Party manufacture revolt. Declare Romaemilan independence._

 _Firedae – Jole 4 4859 – Day of Light  
GEU rebrands as Pruscia. An Anti-Romaemila military state._

 _Todae – Djan 7 4890 – Day of Balance  
Military Pruscian expedition launched to explore Yuan ruins. Contact never re-established._

 _Fursdae – Nova 16 4952 – Day of Balance  
9.6 Earthquake shakes planet. Northern Yuan determined as point of origin._

 _Sundae – Mars 1 4989 – Days of Dark  
Rogue signal detected from Northern Yuan. Information never deciphered._

 _Weekdae – Augs 12 5012 – Day of Balance  
Romaemilan expedition launched to explore Yuan ruins. Contact never re-established._

 _Mundae - Mae 25 5063 – Day of Light  
Total isolationism declared between Romaemila, Pruscia and Al-Magrib. Further explorations of Yuan prohibited._

 _Todae – Zsep 1 5094 – Day of Dark  
Vicci Amidae elected as Premier of Romaemila._

 _Firedae – Djan 10 5096 – Day of Balance  
403 Cybermen arrive in Pruscia, 1200km south of Varibat (Pruscian capital), 100km west of Romemila/Pruscia Border. War for Etruscia Begins. Atmospheric pressure drops by a third._

 _Todae – Feb 15 5096 – Day of Light  
Varibat falls, Cyberfactories confirmed, Cyber-controlled Pruscia border encroaches._

 _Fursdae – Arp 23 5096 – Day of Balance  
Cybertech salvaged from Romaemila vanguard. First victory of the war._

 _Weekdae – Mae 13 5096 – Day of Light  
Cybiotically enhanced troops defeat Cybermen at Siege of Bononia. War ends._

 _Mundae – Nova 2 5096 – Day of Dark  
Cybiotic enhancements (Accretions) popularised among the wealthy._

 _Mundae – Djan 11 5097 – Day of Light  
Cybiot government coup d'état. 273 cleansed. Global power and communications temporarily shut down. Atmospheric pressure drops by a third._

 _Sundae – Djan 24 5097 – Day of Balance  
Successful "Puro" people's revolution. Dissidents executed. Martial Law/Fascist State installed._

 _Choosedae – Mars 30 5097 – Day of Light  
Further Cybiotic Accretions illegalised amid increased anti-veteran prejudice._

 _Choosedae – Juhn 1 5097 – Day of Balance  
Cybiots' Romaemilan citizenship revoked. Puro vigilante squads grow in prevalence._

 _Fursdae – Zsep 9 5097 – Day of Dark  
Cybion independence declared by Kmillea NahChaingMai in the Bononian Peninsula._

 _Sundae – Nova 7 5097 – Day of Dark  
Cybion military begin necessary obtainment and conversion of Puros._

 _Mundae – Djan 10 5098 – Day of Balance – Dark  
Failed Cybion assault on Bononia. 6210 Puros cleansed. 986 Cybiots murdered._

 _Mundae – Djan 10 5098 – Day of Balance – Light  
Lychen Plague arrives in atmosphere in Cybion territory. Atmospheric pressure drops by a third._

 _Firedae – Djan 28 5098 – Day of Light  
Plague jumps from fungoid to avian life forms. Attacks on Cybiots begin._

 _Choosedae – Mars 15 5098 – Day of Light  
Cybiot child diagnosed with Lychen. Total alteration 6 hours later. Summarily put-down._

 _Weekdae – Arp 6 5098 – Day of Balance  
National state of emergency declared in Romaemila under Plague threat._

 _Mundae – Juhn 27 5098 – Day of Dark  
Cybiot Lychen overwhelm containment methods. Bononia enforces absolute quarantine._

 _Choosedae – Jole 5 5098 – Day of Balance  
Northern Hemisphere harvest fails due to Lychen infestation. Global famine begins._

 _Mundae – Augs 15 5098 – Day of Balance  
Maevelchi research group begins Chronovacuator project with contraband Cybertech._

 _Weekdae – Augs 31 5098 – Day of Dark  
Romaemila death toll reaches 50%. Cybion Lychen culling halted due to futility_

 _Fursdae – Zsep 22 5098 – Day of Dark  
Cybion government develops Lychen immunity accretion._

 _Sundae – Nova 13 5098 – Day of Dark  
Cybion declares policy of total Puro extermination to halt Lychen Threat._

 _Choosedae – Nova 29 5098 – Day of Balance  
Puro surrender. 6800 subjects enter illegal Maevelchi Cryonic Chronovacuator pods._

 _Mundae – Des 19 5098 – Day of Light  
Second siege of Bononia begins. Puro refugees cleansed on sight._

 _Mundae – Djan 2 5099 – Day of Balance  
Chronovacuator activated by Vicci Amidae. Successful subject vacation, catastrophic engine failure results in 90Mt nuclear detonation in Bononia. All resident Puros cleansed._

 _Fursdae – Djan 5 5099 – Day of Light  
Kmillea NCM dies. Cybion Government collapses._

 _Mundae – Djan 9 5099 – Day of Balance  
Mass Cybiot infighting breaks out over power, food and water._

 _Choosedae – Djan 10 5099 – Day of Balance  
HeDrones and craft arrive. Craft crashes in the Bononian Peninsula. Atmospheric pressure drops by a third._

 _Weekdae – Djan 11 5099 – Day of Light  
Plague accelerates. Vegetation completely consumed._

 _Todae – Djan 14 5099 – Day of Light  
HeDrones hunt remaining Cybiots in fractured nomadic groups._

 _Weekdae – Djan 18 5099 – Day of Balance  
Plague consumes infrastructure, rocks and dirt._

 _Todae – Djan 21 5099 – Day of Light  
Plague dies, becomes Cank. Distress signal sent out._

 _Mundae – Djan 30 5099 – Day of Balance  
Stranger Apprehended._


	6. Chapter 6

Bill guardedly stepped into the now desolate street, certain she could hear footsteps and feel eyes full of fear watching her. She danced her hand over an oak balustrade that led away from the doorway, her gaze continued to flit nervously with nothing to illicit either her concern or any notion of security.  
Bill looked left and right and wondered if those meant the same thing here. She remembered reading that the Kaiadilt people of Northern Australia had no such words, they never invented the concept of egocentric direction and so learnt an intuitive sense of North, South, East and West through necessity. On this thought she instinctively looked towards the sun and again found the ominous carnelian sky. The now lighter hue reassured her that day was breaking before the realisation of her time travel hit, it was dusk, and she didn't know how fast it was coming.  
Bill went towards the alley the second future her had been crawling towards, but it appeared completely empty, to get to that alley, they had been running left, meaning she had come from the right so Bill decided that that was her best bet and set off, shivering despite her starched denim jacket and the hot, sticky air.

Missy teetered from one foot to the other, it had been nearly 2 hours since the Doctor left, and the control room still buzzed with electrostatic sodide charge. She poked the fuzzy matte-white mass that had once resembled a yet to be defrosted shoulder of lamb and felt a warm mycelium rhythm through her fingers. The thing had clearly grown considerably, and the air was bitter as excess carbon dioxide struggled to diffuse from the area despite the TARDIS's infinite volume.  
Another tremble preceded an almost instantaneous quiet and stillness. The console darkened, the cables below her feet stopped slithering, even the round things silenced their infrasonic cries. The TARDIS was hiding; it was hiding its soul.

Warbles and rumbles followed Bill down the street as automated machines ached through decades of rust and rot. She slackened her pace when the tranquillity persisted, things that looked like cameras turned to the beat of her steps.  
Each section of the street was completely indistinguishable. 5 columns of buildings, all of them shops and restaurants, food stalls, estate agents and what Bill supposed were arcades and towering above them for, at a guess, 9 stories, identical wood and stone terraces. Separating each of them, an alleyway, about 12 metres deep, and in a dimness that looked artificial. Bill explored six before accepting that every one ended in a cobblestone wall holding a thin black slab of metal about 2 feet tall and one foot wide.  
After what felt like an hour of walking, without turnoffs or variation, there was an alleyway lit in bright golden light, Bill stumbled towards it excitedly. At the end, she found a smooth stone cuboid suspended above the ground and attached to the same black plate she'd seen plain before.

Bill stroked the palm of her hand on what felt like cold slate and felt shallow rectangular indentations on either side, the material inside felt tough and elastic, like rubber or muscle. There was a thin cable snaking up the wall from the black plate like she had seen before but it was broken, about 2 metres above the ground a section of cable flopped backwards, hair thin wires stuck out visibly, and Bill was sure she spotted classic blue sparks spiking out the ends.  
Stumped for what else she could do, Bill moved onto her toes and leant forward, her chest braced against the box. The Doctor would call it plantar flexion; the Doctor would have been able to reach… She gripped the drooping end of cable in one hand and the sonic in the other, she held the frayed end to the one still attached to the wall and the nib of the sonic in between. She'd seen the Doctor do exactly this before, setting 2428D, he said using it to reattach barbed wire had saved the world in 1945, Bill wasn't sure she believed him, show knew how he was. She bent the wires into shape and activated the sonic with an invasive buzz, pressing and holding them together until she was satisfied they'd been melted and refrozen.  
After a few seconds, a quiet hum began emanating from the cable, Bill took two steps back and bit her lip in excitement, her eyes darted across the large face of the cuboid, seeking any movement or change. She saw nothing, but a distinct whirr, like cogs turning slowly, came muffled from inside the box. Bill's eyes widened and she once more stepped towards it and held out her hand. The instant she touched it, there was a loud click, the box seemed to pop off the black supporting plate and fell. Bill leaped backwards as it hit the tiled ground with a hard crack and a soft crunch, the dark material in its indentations pulsed quickly and shot out, bracing two tendrils on either side against the ground.  
A warm, authoritative and distinctly female voice came from inside the thing.  
'Yerenn: Active. Morphon detected in proximity. Current directive:'  
A new voice spoke, it sounded compressed, so Bill reckoned it was a recording. It was another woman, but they sounded old, weak and almost fearful.  
 _'Locate and apprehend all organisms within Bononia, utilise local organic template, kill all humanoids.'  
_ Bill's stare hardened, the tendrils repositioned themselves into an 'x' shape, the lower two lifted the stone cuboid off the ground with agonising sluggishness. It faced her, two arms, two legs and a torso moved gracefully to match Bill's defensive stance. Beeping preceded a light that hurt her eyes, Bill staggered back, desperately trying to see through the glare.  
It faded, Bill cursed the lights that danced across her vision, and as the spots cleared, she found herself once again, looking directly into a pair of her own eyes.

The control room was pitch black, save the slowly panning rectangular beams of radiant white light that permeated through the frosted glass windows of the TARDIS door and coruscated the metal tiling around Missy's feet.  
Missy held in her hand the amorphous lump of white fur and gently stroked down the stiff black protrusions across its warm mass. The Chronovacuator had stopped, now the TARDIS matrix had retreated, powered down all systems and excised most rooms, it no longer registered as active and potentially dangerous technology.  
Bill had been taken and the Doctor had not, meaning it was either being controlled by humans or something that wanted humans. It tried to take the TARDIS but not the Doctor's sonic cane or any of the other petty trinkets he had shunted onto Bill, so, they weren't familiar with Time Lord technology.  
And there was this fungus. The only life form in the universe that can scare a TARDIS.

Bill tripped over her feet as an all too familiar hand reached for her neck.  
'Do not resist, you are being apprehended by a Yerenn Unit under the orders of Vicci Amidae.'  
The voice carried the same commanding cadence, but it came, out of synch, from Bill's own lips. With her back on the floor and the wind still knocked out of her chest by the impact with the solid stone ground, Bill kicked against the floor, sliding her backwards away from the… Clone? Alien with chameleon powers? No… the woman had said something about using organic template, and the thing called itself a unit. It was a robot, that disguised itself as a nearby person, ok, robots are fine, she'd dealt with robots, she still didn't particularly fancy dealing with one that had been ordered to kill humanoids.  
It lurched towards her and Bill pulled up her wrist and smashed the button on her Vortex Manipulator that had worked previously without looking at the display. For the second time that day, the world around her drained down a plughole that then rose up and smacked her in the face.

'Yerenn Unit apprehension subject status: Missing. Time vortex manipulation detected. Subject believed to possess dangerous technology. Permission to utilise Maevelchi Chronovacuator for pursuit requested.'  
The robot that looked like Bill stood motionless in the alley, even its holographic clothes held rigid unnaturally. An electric black light encased it, a smell of ozone filled the air and a dusty white precipitate began to form.

Bill's head smacked against a hard floor, she scrambled hastily into a crouched position and swore at the microwavebot in front of her.  
Bill relaxed almost immediately and rocked back lightly on her heels; she was back in the second room, she'd gone to the same place a further 50 minutes back in time. The clean floor and closed doors told her she was earlier than she had been the first time she'd travelled back, Bill braved a look through the window and spared past her the paradox of a pre-vomit covered floor by stomaching the unfurling blood vessels that were slowly coiling themselves around the pale fragile-looking bones of her own lower legs.  
Bill leant back against the wall staring at the curiously open doorway that led to the familiar street outside, now slightly more well-lit than she remembered. There was a bush across the street where she'd looked into her own terrified eyes only an hour earlier, but also, some time from now. Bill wandered slowly towards it, closing the door to the street behind her, and sat down exhaustedly on the cobblestone curb, the adrenaline faded as a kind of vertigo set in, the timber structures spun and curved and she felt close to passing out to the methodical beat of her heart. In the near silence, she could feel the thudding through the palms of her hands as if it was reverberating through the street itself. A bolt of fear coursed through her, she felt her heart beat harder, but she didn't know why. Her rate hadn't increased, but now it felt as if each pulse was shaking her whole body. Bill became terrified she was going into shock, or maybe a panic attack, she felt physically literally shaken with each rhythmic beat of her heart. Bill began to hyperventilate, she swore she could hear her own ribs cracking under the force, she could feel the blood pounding behind her eyes.  
A soft hiss accompanied the familiar sensation, the door to the second room was open, she was standing in the doorway looking as terrified as she remembered feeling.

She looked to her left and saw the second her charging, but it wasn't her, and it wasn't her heartbeat she felt. It was the robot and the noise of metal feet beating on stone, it found her. The next few seconds were vital, she knew the thing would be upon her in seconds, she knew that this her had travelled in time again, she saw them vanish, so that was what she had to do. Bill scrambled back, keeping eyes on the robot. It all made sense, she'd travel back another hour, she'd be the one who left the door open, but something nagged her. The robot already looked like her, which meant it was either the same one or one that a future her had travelled to the past and met, but it came from the direction she met it, and with the time and speed she notice, probably a similar place. So, it was almost certainly the same one, which meant it had travelled in time, somehow following her. If she went back a further 50 minutes, it would follow, only this time it would take mere seconds for it to reach her from where it was, wouldn't even be enough time for her to stand up. But, she had seen the other her disappear, she knew she had no time to reset physical coordinates, was she doomed to travel back in time and die? She couldn't accept that, it came down to the door; someone needed to leave it open.  
Bill pulled the Aoratos watch from her breast pocket, flipped it on her wrist and hit the silver button on the side. She kicked against the curb towards the wall opposite the original her, the robot leaped almost as soon as she did this, colliding viciously with the solid stone ground. She saw the flicker of light around its face and heard the same cry of tearing metal she remembered. The electric black light and white haze followed, the robot disappeared.

Bill stayed there, sitting with arms she couldn't see resting on invisible knees, her back against a warm wooden wall, for a long time. The other her wandered off, she didn't even have the energy to want to spare her from what was to come, although she knew she couldn't. The sky dimmed, her breathing slowed, and Bill rose to her feet.


End file.
